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The mob wife aesthetic has arrived and no corner of the internet is safe, not even booktok. Recommending "mob wife books" on TikTok might seem like a contrived effort to jump on the latest trend in hopes of going viral because it is. But it also got me thinking about the infamous reading aesthetic and how it has evolved over the past couple if years.
Last year I made a video about a GQ article that criticised a perceived superficiality in the way people interact with books online. In the author's opinion, people on Instagram and TikTok didn't read as much as wanted to portray themselves as reader. The online book community revolved around the aesthetic of reading, not reading itself.
But if you've been paying close attention at the online book space over the past year, you will have noticed that there isn't just one unifying "bookish aesthetic". The days of dark academia are over. The Hermione Granger and Rory Gilmore - inspired reader girl archetype has taken a back seat to the cooler and slightly more self-absorbed "hot girl".
Rising from the ashes of the "that girl", the hot girl/cool girl/sad girl reading trend speaks to young women who are interested in character-driven stories about women. It revolves around portrayals of failed female perfection and the aftermath of that failure. It platform so-called unhinged women and female rage.
But whether these stories are as powerful or as transgressive as their intended audience wants them to be, remains widely debated.
Despite its commercial popularity, critics have labeled the "cool girl novel" dull, repetitive and navel-gazing. Its writers are nothing more than Sally Rooney wannabes and its readers are just using the book object to create the illusion of a personality.
As usual, I agree with some if this and disagree with the rest... watch the video to see which is which.
Timestamps:
00:00 mob wife books are triggering to me
00:41 the reading aesthetic is actually lots of smaller sub-reading aesthetics
03:04 dark academia - the og book aesthetic
05:49 the pandemic and the rise of cottage-core, girl-core and that girl
07:18 what the hell are cool girl novels, hot girl books and sad girl literature?
12:35 the hot girl reading industrial complex
18:09 it's always "what are cool girl novels" and never "why are there cool girl novels"
videos referenced:
Mina Le vids - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqjpuUJQFcM&t=424s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxDd8ocpcHk&t=2357s
Rowan Ellis vid - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfkYXVdkUEE&t=511s
You can buy Alice Cappelle's Collapse Feminism here: https://repeaterbooks.com/product/collapse-feminism/
articles referenced:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/aug/08/a-smorgasbord-of-unlikability-the-authors-helping-sad-girl-lit-grow-up
https://instyleaustralia.com.au/culture/what-is-a-hot-girl-book/
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/09/reading-is-so-sexy-gen-z-turns-to-physical-books-and-libraries
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2023/09/curse-cool-girl-novelist-parody
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/18/t-magazine/book-stylists-instagram-influencers.html
also referenced:
@christinaobo
and @ellereadsomebooks (on Instagram)
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